Beautiful pain au chocolat. Made from scratch with a quick homemade puff pastry, that actually doesn't take a whole day to make. It is about 30% less puffed and airy as it would be otherwise, with a basic puff pastry dough, but hey, it takes almost 48 hours less to make. We are extremely satisfied with the result. It is incredibly delicious, soft and airy at the same time. Don't let the amount of instructions for this recipe scare you, it's not as hard as it looks, it is actually pretty great to make your own pain au chocolat, especially when you surprise your loved ones with this delight. They will love you forever. It is heavenly good.

Lets get cooking!

ONLY A FEW MOMENTS SPENT IN THE KITCHEN AND YOU WILL HAVE THIS FANTASTIC DISH IN FRONT OF YOU.

Tools and equipement

METHOD

Combine the ingredients

In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast together. Break the butter in small chunks. Add to the bowl and rub it in loosely, until the dough comes together. Add cold water and knead. Be careful not over knead it. You still need to see bits of butter. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and leave to rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.

Roll into a rectangle

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction only, to get a 20 x 60cm (8 inch x 24 inch) rectangle. Keep edges straight and even.

Fold the dough twice

Fold the bottom third over the rectangle, then the top third over. You should have 3 rectangular pieces piled on top of each other. Roll the dough again in one direction only, to get a 20 x 60cm (8 inch x 24 inch) rectangle. Keep edges straight and even. Repeat the folding process. Fold the bottom third over the rectangle, then the top third over. You should have 3 rectangular pieces piled on top of each other. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and leave to rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.

Fold the dough twice again

Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll the dough again in one direction only, to get a 20 x 60cm (8 inch x 24 inch) rectangle. Fold the bottom third over the rectangle, then the top third over. Roll the dough again in one direction only, to get a 20 x 60cm (8 inch x 24 inch) rectangle. Keep edges straight and even. Repeat the folding process. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and leave to rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.

Cut into 10 stripes

Remove the dough from the fridge. Cut the dough in half. Roll each dough in one direction only to get about 0.5 cm / 0.2 inch thick dough and 20 cm / 8 inch wide. Cut each dough into 5 rectangles, each measuring 20 x 8 cm (8 inch x 3 inch).

Roll into pains au chocolat

Place a small chunk of chocolate at the bottom of one rectangle of dough. Fold the dough over the chocolate, then start to roll up, about 1/4 of the way up add another small chunk of chocolate. Finish rolling up the dough. Make sure the seam is underneath the roll of dough. Repeat the process with remaining rectangles of dough to get 10 pains au chocolat.

Tip

On this point you can freeze the dough and bake it any other day. Keep for up to a month in a freezer.

Let them rise

Place the pains au chocolat on the prepared baking sheet, make sure they have enough space between them to rise. Let them rise for 1 hour on room temperature (24°C / 75°F). Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390°F.

Tip

Lightly spray the plastic wrap with oil and cover the pains au chocolat to prevent drying.

Bake and let cool, then serve

Lightly brush the pains au chocolat with egg wash, sprinkle each one with a bit of almond flakes, lower the oven temperature to 190°C / 375°F and bake for 25 minutes in convection oven or 35 minutes in a standard, no fan oven. Let the pains au chocolat cool slightly on the wire racks before eating.